As some of you may know, I am running the London Marathon for Lattitude next year. Last night I showed some dedication to my training and went for a run in the pouring rain. Afterwards, I thought I’d start a blog- this is what i wrote:
Its half past 10 in the evening and I’ve just rolled into bed. I can hear the rain drumming down on the flat roof and the occasional gust of wind howls through- certainly a bit of a wild night.
Indeed it’s the darkest, gloomiest week of the year- just a couple more days and we’ll be headed back in the right direction, but right now it’s pretty miserable here in the UK. There’s a reason why Christmas falls at this time of year…
Anyway- at 7 I hopped off the train at Crowthorne station, and got on my bike to complete my journey home from work. Each car sent up a spray and I got soaked even on such a short ride. It didn’t matter because I had System of a Down blasting into my ears and I had already resolved to go for a run tonight regardless of the weather. Time to get a bit militant.
Undeterred then I got home, got my kit on, and set about warming up. I tend to have a good session on the punchbag with some suitably heavy and climactic background noise and then stretch a bit and crack on. I’m actually starting to feel some power now. It feels good. Similarly my running is progressing, slow and steady- I’m cranking it up little by little, bit by bit.
So back out into it. Nay bother. Initially I was taking some real satisfaction from just slogging along quite nicely, paying absolutely no attention to the weather. It’s only a bit of water after all. However once I got to the Wellington College kilometre and it was a bit more exposed; the wind whipping across the playing fields and squalls of cold rain stinging my face, I couldn’t help but notice. The wind in one direction was a real hindrance, gusts buffeting me back, but at this point I was still fresh and enjoying my defiance.
Indeed, running in the other direction with the wind slightly behind was genuinely fun. Maybe I’m a masochist but it was satisfying to be out in it, without another soul in sight. With the wild wind in the trees, and the lights stretching out into the distance before me, I was swept along like the glistening rivers at my feet as the rain hammered down – it was quite dreamlike. There is a certain surreal quality to take a step back and reflect on the moment. It was a fairly unusual situation. I enjoy transcending regularity.
And the fact that I could reflect was encouraging. The rain took away from the usual monotony- this run was different as my attention was elsewhere. Whilst in other runs I’m not totally focused on stride, breathing, pace and suchlike, they were much less of a feature tonight. Just running; calmly, naturally, comfortably- that’s running at its best.
Then I did see one other soggy lunatic loom out of the spray and we shared a wave and a joke about the optimum conditions. A little solidarity in absurdity was a great and heartwarming encouragement and I smiled to myself right the way down the road. I don’t know who you are mate, but best of luck.
By now though I was wet through and turning back into it again I have to say the novelty began to wear off. My calves were cold as when my trousers weren’t flapping about like a wet tent they were stuck to me and chilling me faster. I could feel all extremities beginning to get chilled too. I hope on the day the weather is reasonable- I wouldn’t like to imagine 4 hours+ of that.
And so that’s another day over. I’m in a cycle of late finishes at work, get home, run, eat, sleep, repeat. There are mates I have been trying to catch up with for weeks now- I’m not great at the best of times but right at this moment I’ve very little free time. My fundraising plans have suffered too- I need to put aside some time to organise an event or nine, and really get off the ground. But that’s also why I’m writing this- to beg, plead, ask and enquire if anyone out there would like to make a donation. If you would like to, you can on my JustGiving page:http://www.justgiving.com/BLONGPAAMA
I’m sure these dark nights, running past Christmas trees will come back to me in occasional little flashes on some sunny spring run next year. In the meantime, I hope I haven’t caught a cold.
